ongbok:He is telling a story through the eyes of the subject of the story. In this story the subject of the story is a egomaniac psychopath, so of course their is never going to be a part in the movie were it distinctly points out that this person and their actions are bad because the person telling the story doesn't believe it himself. If the audience needs the story teller to point out that Belfort's actions were bad, then there is something wrong with them.

It is almost impossible to create a compelling story where the villain doesn't think he's the hero, simply because most sane minds (and most insane minds, for that matter) don't work that way. Villains are masters of excusing the inexcusable, and so it is all but impossible to create a compelling story around a villain who cannot (or does not) do this.

Does it mean that there's something wrong with an audience who cheers him on? I don't think so. I think it merely means that the storyteller has done his job well, by bringing us so close to the mindset that we can empathize. Judgment is for later, when we are no longer caught up in the story's spell.

And quite a judgment it can be, too. Think about it: you got far enough into the guy's head to cheer him on, but for what? What grand justification is there for this? Where is the big thing that makes it all OK? The answer is simple: there was nothing. Just pure self-gratification. You should know: you saw it through his eyes, and felt enough of what he felt to cheer him on. And yet it was so empty, so shallow; there was nothing good or noble in what this man did. They say you shouldn't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes, but now you've clocked in your mile, and your cheers prove how genuine a mile it was. It's time for the verdict.

pueblonative:Oh really, is that why you assholes started cheering during the screening? If the French Revolution ever comes here and they put a new reality version of the Running Man only with bankers and stockbrokerrs, the second coming won't have the Nielson ratings that does.

He obviously hasn't seen the movie because the scene with the cash taped to the girl is in the trailer and doesn't take place on a trading floor.

Plus he 'warns' wannabe traders that they won't buy their Ferrari until they've been doing this for thirty years? Oh man, 30 years till they have enough disposable income to buy a half million dollar car? Most Americans would be thrilled to have that in a 401k.

Next thing will be people trying to convince me that Saturday school isn't a good time to get high and discuss life issues with people outside of my social circle.

padraig:vernonFL: I heard there was a lot of sex and drugs in the movie. So much that it barely got an R rating, it was really more like nc17.

I really don't know how it did not get an NC17 rating, considering the amount of full frontal nudity.

There's really not that much nudity in the film it's just that they approach it in a very brash way. There's really not much in the way of graphic sex scenes either. At least to the extent people would make you think.

keypusher:Yeah, this. Using "The Wolf of Wall Street" to explain the financial crisis is like using a movie about the hijinks at a used car dealership to explain the GM bankruptcy.

"Arbitrage" is worth seeing, but "Margin Call" is the only one of the movies you mention that's actually about the financial crisis.

Never quite sure if Margin Call was portraying Bear Stearns or Lehman Bros....think it was Bear, but the fact that no one understood what those derivatives were or how dangerous they were until rocket scientist Zach Quinto figured them out was a bit scary.

Those kind of movies are the equivalent of dramas about "computer hackers". Showing the real things that go on in Wall Street firms are boring and slow. Who's going to be thrilled by watching an analyst studying spreadsheets and financial statements late in to the night? How about the exciting trips to Bentonville and Minneapolis for meeting CEOs? Be still my beating heart.

hmm, this 'trader' sounds like a quant. explains the lack of fun he's had.the amount of drugs is pretty accurate in some settings...and wherever there is drugs and money, there is girls willing to get on all fours.

Millennium:ongbok: He is telling a story through the eyes of the subject of the story. In this story the subject of the story is a egomaniac psychopath, so of course their is never going to be a part in the movie were it distinctly points out that this person and their actions are bad because the person telling the story doesn't believe it himself. If the audience needs the story teller to point out that Belfort's actions were bad, then there is something wrong with them.

It is almost impossible to create a compelling story where the villain doesn't think he's the hero, simply because most sane minds (and most insane minds, for that matter) don't work that way. Villains are masters of excusing the inexcusable, and so it is all but impossible to create a compelling story around a villain who cannot (or does not) do this.

Does it mean that there's something wrong with an audience who cheers him on? I don't think so. I think it merely means that the storyteller has done his job well, by bringing us so close to the mindset that we can empathize. Judgment is for later, when we are no longer caught up in the story's spell.

And quite a judgment it can be, too. Think about it: you got far enough into the guy's head to cheer him on, but for what? What grand justification is there for this? Where is the big thing that makes it all OK? The answer is simple: there was nothing. Just pure self-gratification. You should know: you saw it through his eyes, and felt enough of what he felt to cheer him on. And yet it was so empty, so shallow; there was nothing good or noble in what this man did. They say you shouldn't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes, but now you've clocked in your mile, and your cheers prove how genuine a mile it was. It's time for the verdict.

There have been numerous movies where we cheer for the villain in the past. It if funny that people are making a big point about it now. Henry Hill from Goodfellas, Michael Corleone from Godfather, Billy the Kid from Young Guns, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Al from Deadwood, etc. I think the financial collapse has hit a soft spot in our psyche. Unlike gangsters and gunslingers of old, these people have never really met justice. Maybe that is why that is the issue?

some_beer_drinker:m00: lewismarktwo: He probably watched the TS from the internet where most of that is cut out.

TS?

theater shot

It might as well stand for that as most things labeled 'TS' are really just decent 'cams' (guy eating popcorn while maybe filming the screen with his ancient handicam). It supposed to stand for 'telesync' which is a professional capture of a projected image via a high def camera with direct line audio (not microphone).

Margin Call is great, one of my favorite movies to watch at random times actually, though I think it didn't do enough to explain what a CDO was, or a credit default swap, which is what they were selling off as best they could along with these giant subprime backed bonds.

I felt comfortable watching it and getting what was going on, but I also did some reading beforehand to understand the whole deal with the bond market.

The Wolf of Wall Street is more like some titties and lots of excess and there is a bit of stockbroking in there for maybe ten minutes. Jean Dujardin was the best thing about it, but it was pretty mediocre overall.

I have Arbitrage in my Netflix queue, and I need to get to it already. Maybe this weekend.

I think, since the current-day bond-trading market is way nuttier in a lot of ways than stock-market trading ever was, we need more movies about that market.

I was gasping for air when the Lemmons kicked in and they skipped straight to the drool phase and discovered the cerebral palsy phase.

the screener version i saw was full of nudity. boners, pussy, it was all there in plain sight.

I've only seen it once... Though now that you mention it, i do remember jonah hill masterbating when the blonde shows up on screen, that had a boner... but it's jonah hill... so... i don't recall any muff shots though...

Nemo's Brother:There have been numerous movies where we cheer for the villain in the past. It if funny that people are making a big point about it now. Henry Hill from Goodfellas, Michael Corleone from Godfather, Billy the Kid from Young Guns, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Al from Deadwood, etc. I think the financial collapse has hit a soft spot in our psyche. Unlike gangsters and gunslingers of old, these people have never really met justice. Maybe that is why that is the issue?

I think maybe it hit too close to home for some people. I mean this shiat goes on right now and these guys are alive right now, making money. Even in Goodfellas. that was a long time ago and the really only killed each other. If these Wall Street douchebags who were screwing old people out of their life savings, in the guys from Goodfellas' neighborhood, they'd end up in the East River.

And people need to get over the concept of "karma". Doesn't exist. Never did.

One of the better movie review podcasts around, Now Playing Presents, gives a good description of both the film and the current circumstances of the real-life Jordon Belfort. Fair warning: it's an in-depth discussion, so it's almost as long as the movie itself and full of spoilers.

/I'm sort of interested in the movie, if only because it's a Scorsese project, but I won't pay to see it. Belfort won't be getting any pennies from me if I can help it.

EdgeRunner:One of the better movie review podcasts around, Now Playing Presents, gives a good description of both the film and the current circumstances of the real-life Jordon Belfort. Fair warning: it's an in-depth discussion, so it's almost as long as the movie itself and full of spoilers.

/I'm sort of interested in the movie, if only because it's a Scorsese project, but I won't pay to see it. Belfort won't be getting any pennies from me if I can help it.

CeroX:I've only seen it once... Though now that you mention it, i do remember jonah hill masterbating when the blonde shows up on screen, that had a boner... but it's jonah hill... so... i don't recall any muff shots though...

Remember when the guy got out of prison and they had a welcome home party on the boat??

thisisyourbrainonFark:EdgeRunner: One of the better movie review podcasts around, Now Playing Presents, gives a good description of both the film and the current circumstances of the real-life Jordon Belfort. Fair warning: it's an in-depth discussion, so it's almost as long as the movie itself and full of spoilers.

/I'm sort of interested in the movie, if only because it's a Scorsese project, but I won't pay to see it. Belfort won't be getting any pennies from me if I can help it.

StrikitRich:keypusher: Yeah, this. Using "The Wolf of Wall Street" to explain the financial crisis is like using a movie about the hijinks at a used car dealership to explain the GM bankruptcy.

"Arbitrage" is worth seeing, but "Margin Call" is the only one of the movies you mention that's actually about the financial crisis.

Never quite sure if Margin Call was portraying Bear Stearns or Lehman Bros....think it was Bear, but the fact that no one understood what those derivatives were or how dangerous they were until rocket scientist Zach Quinto figured them out was a bit scary.

I think they had Goldman Sachs in mind, because the bank actually succeeds in unloading its position. But if you recall, the bank figures out it is exposed overnight and sells the next day. That didn't happen anywhere. It's sort of like The Day After Tomorrow, which supposedly portrays a (possible) real phenomenon, but which occurs in the movie about 1,000 times faster that it could in real life.

22 years in equity brokerage. I can tell you every single hollywood depiction of the biz is over-hyped bullshiat. Mostly boring MFs even on the trading floor. You'll find more cokeheads in any other industry.

Ebbelwoi:22 years in equity brokerage. I can tell you every single hollywood depiction of the biz is over-hyped bullshiat. Mostly boring MFs even on the trading floor. You'll find more cokeheads in any other industry.the restaurant business.

There are a lot of cokeheads in this business though. I want out of it entirely but I can't find my way.

H31N0US:Ebbelwoi: 22 years in equity brokerage. I can tell you every single hollywood depiction of the biz is over-hyped bullshiat. Mostly boring MFs even on the trading floor. You'll find more cokeheads in any other industry.the restaurant business.

There are a lot of cokeheads in this business though. I want out of it entirely but I can't find my way.

Strip naked, draw swaztikas all over your body with a permanent marker, dust yourself with a thick layer of coke, then run laps around your local police station shrieking "Death to the pigs! My testicles are bombs!" If that doesn't help ease you into an early retirement, you may as well accept your fate as a lifetime career man.

padraig:Not as much nudity as you might think... there's a bunch of topless strippers in a couple of scenes, but that's about it...

Either we did not watch the same movie, or there is far more nudity in the version shown in France, because there are a lot of pussy shots in the one I've seen, including the main female character.

I saw more fully naked female bodies than I see in my own shower every day. Holy shiat, what a lot of naked coochie. Also one male dick (which they only got away with, imo, because it was the funny fat guy's dick); enough blow to put Tony Montana into a coma; more Qaaludes than six raves could handle; and apparently they broke the all-time film record for saying "f*ck" with something like 509+ f-bombs.

Gyrfalcon:padraig: Not as much nudity as you might think... there's a bunch of topless strippers in a couple of scenes, but that's about it...

Either we did not watch the same movie, or there is far more nudity in the version shown in France, because there are a lot of pussy shots in the one I've seen, including the main female character.

I saw more fully naked female bodies than I see in my own shower every day. Holy shiat, what a lot of naked coochie. Also one male dick (which they only got away with, imo, because it was the funny fat guy's dick); enough blow to put Tony Montana into a coma; more Qaaludes than six raves could handle; and apparently they broke the all-time film record for saying "f*ck" with something like 509+ f-bombs.

Gyrfalcon:padraig: Not as much nudity as you might think... there's a bunch of topless strippers in a couple of scenes, but that's about it...

Either we did not watch the same movie, or there is far more nudity in the version shown in France, because there are a lot of pussy shots in the one I've seen, including the main female character.

I saw more fully naked female bodies than I see in my own shower every day. Holy shiat, what a lot of naked coochie. Also one male dick (which they only got away with, imo, because it was the funny fat guy's dick); enough blow to put Tony Montana into a coma; more Qaaludes than six raves could handle; and apparently they broke the all-time film record for saying "f*ck" with something like 509+ f-bombs.